Wayna Pitch - Production / Distribution / Innovation

Jonathan Musset is CEO at Wayna Pitch, a french production and distribution company of feature length fiction films, born in 2011 out of a love for cinema, creativity and digital innovation.

For a long time, Jonathan has been an IT engineer and CTO, but since 2011, he is a Director and Distributor of fictional feature films. On December 2013, he released Midnight Globe, his first feature as a Director. He has worked for 6 years on the production of two feature and on the theatrical distribution of seven, including Chu & Blossom, Mandorla, Inertia, Tapis Rouge and Mate-me por favor. He takes part every year in the Cannes Producer’s Network to set up international co-productions and to find an executive producer for Good-bye Romeo, his second feature film as a director.

Wayna Pitch acquires for France, only feature films that are creative, innovative and unique. Wayna Pitch's lineup is mostly composed of films aimed at 15-25 year-olds with puzzling and strong universes.

    

Wayna Pitch : website - films - innovation - equitable - contact

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MATE-ME POR FAVOR  (March 15th, 2017)
a feature film by Anita Rocha Da Silveira




INERTIA  (February 1st, 2017)
a feature film by Idan Haguel




TAPIS ROUGE  (May 10th, 2017)
a feature film by F. Baillif & K. Gahigiri




MANDORLA  (September 7th, 2016)
a feature film by Roberto Miller




CHU & BLOSSOM  (October 28th, 2015)
a feature film by C. Chu & G. Kelly




MIDNIGHT GLOBE  (December 4th, 2013)
a feature film by Jonathan Musset

From computing to my first feature film

I have to recognize that I became a director in a non-conventional way. Computer engineer by day, DIY filmmaker by night, involved sometimes to make images, most of the time to edit videos and occasionally to write stories. After many years in computing, I was involved in one of the most innovative open source software community. The digital revolution was the opportunity for me to return to my first passion, cinema. I started my career as a filmmaker in 2011 but I’m still involved in several innovation initiatives. I recently introduced innovative digital methods of traceability to help to synchronize the different production phases of the filmmaking process : from pre-production to post-production.

Believe me or not, I sometimes talk about computing methods during my filmmaking seminars because I think that the two worlds are not so different. In my opinion, the modeling tools of the computing world could help screenwriters to write better stories, or a screenplay can sometimes be seen as an algorithm and a character sheet as a database (end of the debate / I will start to say that computer scientists are artists too).

Entretien pour Magazine Fragil avec Jérôme Romain & Hugo Philippon

In 2011, I decided to make Russian Sandglass, my first short film as a director with the Canon 5D. In 2011, I also wrote the screenplay for GLOBE to talk about hasty judgments on other people's lives and to pay special tribute to an american personality of the 20th century who was relatively unknown in Europe : Helen Keller. This became Midnight Globe, my first feature film. I couldn't have done it without internet. I launched a crowd-funding campaign in 2012 to finance Midnight Globe and it was released in french theaters in December 4th of 2013.

I like to make films in english, with french and english speaking actors. Unfortunately, finding a producer in France for an english speaking feature film is more or less impossible, especially for unknown filmmakers. So, I also became a producer and I created Wayna Pitch, to bring my projects to life and to change the way people looked at it.

Wayna Pitch wishes to make independent Equitable Cinema, in full transparency and in respecting the viewer by revealing that the film was produced with limited resources. To associate viewers with our position, Wayna Pitch has committed to reimburse 50% of its profits (only the Wayna Pitch part of the film profits), mainly to associations connected with the subject matter of the film, but equally to initiatives that support this position. This agreement is above all ethical, but it supports the simple fact that Wayna Pitch is a company that wants to continue to innovate within the audio-visual field.

Here is the trailer of Midnight Globe, my first feature film, released in 2013.

Midnight GLOBE - Trailer from Jonathan Musset on Vimeo.

Nattie is finally old enough to learn how to master the Voyage, a new communication technique used in a popular game of deception known as Wiphala. After beginning her training under the penetrating eye of the mysterious Master Dallé, Nattie soon realises that she is being watched and that a web of lies and deceit surround her. The only way out : jouer au Wiphala!

Here is Page 166, my latest short film, released in 2014.

Page 166 from Jonathan Musset on Vimeo.

Here is my 2011 demo reel (maybe I should take the time to make a new one).

Demo Reel 2011 from Jonathan Musset on Vimeo.

Here is Russian Sandglass, my first short film as a director, with the 5D.

Russian Sandglass from Jonathan Musset on Vimeo.

Sortie du DVD de mon premier long-métrage

La fabrication de mon premier long-métrage Midnight Globe est désormais derrière moi. Comme souvent pour un réalisateur d'un premier long, j'ai été impliqué dans toutes les étapes du processus de création du film, de la naissance de l'idée à la diffusion en salle, ce qui m'a permis d'apprendre énormément de choses sur les challenges technique, artistique, humain et économique d'un tel projet. Au delà du résultat, de la vingtaine de salle en sortie nationale et des soirées débats très animées, ce film a été pour moi un laboratoire d'idées, d'erreurs, de remise en cause, de rencontres... Certaines choses étaient réussies et d'autres moins, mais il paraît que c'est en faisant que nous apprenons et que nous grandissons.

Si vous n'avez pas pu voir Midnight Globe en salle depuis le 4 décembre 2013, n'hésitez pas à acquérir le DVD (ou à le pirater) dans vos boutiques préférées ou sur vos sites favoris... www.midnightglobe.com

Midnight Globe est labellisé "Cinéma Equitable", ce qui implique que la société de production Wayna Pitch s'engage à reverser 50% de ses bénéfices d'exploitation sur le film, principalement à des associations de personnes handicapées ayant un lien avec l'histoire.

Wayna Pitch est une société de production, d'édition DCP / DVD, et de distribution de films pour le cinéma, basée à Nantes (FR). En prenant du recul sur cette expérience et sur les mutations en cours dans le monde du cinéma au niveau mondial, nous avons pris la décision d'organiser des séminaires modernes pour partager cette expérience et accompagner des jeunes cinéastes, notamment ceux qui souhaiteraient passer du court au long-métrage, ou ceux qui voudraient démystifier ce monde du cinéma qui paraît tellement inaccessible. Ces séminaires peuvent aussi convenir aux professionnels expérimentés désireux de faire évoluer leur façon de travailler en appréhendant mieux les possibilités apportées par les nouvelles technologies...

Le Maître du Temps, un personnage entre poésie et métaphore

Mon premier long-métrage Midnight GLOBE est sorti en salle le 4 décembre 2013. Si vous n'avez jamais entendu parler de ce film, voici une critique parue dans Le Monde et une chronique radio diffusée sur Jet FM (4ème minute). Si vous n'avez pas encore vu le film, stop!!!

A la fin des différentes avant-premières, les spectateurs avaient beaucoup de questions sur l'histoire du film. Le personnage qui cristallise le plus d'interrogations est Timili, un personnage secondaire aussi appelé l'homme à la montre, ou encore le Maître du Temps... Ce n'est pas l'aspect le plus important du film, mais quand on se focalise sur l'intérêt de ce personnage, on se rend compte que c'est lui qui donne le tempo à l'expérience proposée.

En guise de bonne année 2014, j'ai donc décidé de décrypter la place de ce personnage dans le puzzle de cette histoire mystérieuse.

Comment parler de cela au cinéma? Midnight GLOBE est une expérience qui veut plonger le spectateur dans les méandres et la complexité d'une vie complètement différente de celle que nous avons l'habitude de vivre.

Nous vivons tous dans un espace-temps dans lequel nous pensons maîtriser les 3 dimensions qui nous entourent, et dans lequel la notion de "temps qui passe" est déjà très présente et parfois difficile à appréhender. Imaginez que l'on vous supprime une de ces dimensions, la notion de "temps qui passe" prendrait alors une tout autre importance, dans un espace plus confiné. Qu'on se le dise, le temps n'est pas perçu de la même manière par tout le monde, et il est perçu de façon très différente par les gens comme Nattie, l'héroïne du film. Le rythme du film essaye de nous faire plonger dans cet univers. 

Timili est tout simplement un éducateur pour enfants dans ce bâtiment tout blanc que l'on appelle "Le Centre". Timili est une sorte de docteur qui organise et planifie les journées des membres, pour vérifier que tout se passe bien. Il est notamment celui qui s'assure que chaque "voyage" ne dure pas trop longtemps, car les gens comme Nattie ont parfois du mal à se repérer dans le temps qui passe et l'expérience du "voyage" peut s'avérer éprouvante psychologiquement pour eux.

Pendant un voyage, les émotions sensorielles partagées par le toucher sont très fragiles, et parfois les émotions ou les angoisses du passé peuvent re-surgir et se mêler aux vibrations sensorielles du moment présent. Nattie a tellement développé ce don qu'elle peut se comporter en véritable détecteur de mensonge en touchant les mains ou le visage de quelqu'un d'autre. Pour résumer, Timili prend soin de Nattie car elle est fragile, elle a un don, et elle doit être prête pour affronter Faro et prouver sa culpabilité.

Le temps est omniprésent dans Midnight GLOBE, le spectateur avance à vitesse constante tel un équilibriste sur son fil tendu entre deux mondes. A minuit, l'heure du crime pour certains, l'heure du passage à la nuit profonde pour d'autres, Midnight GLOBE essaye de faire passer le spectateur dans l'autre monde, ce monde qualifié de "monde d'or" par H.K mais qui est si sombre et si complexe à percevoir pour nous. Pourtant, dans ce monde, H.K a réussi à construire des réflexions sur des thèmes aussi essentiels que la tolérance et les jugements que l'on porte sur les autres, en allant même jusqu'à rencontrer des criminels et à lutter contre la peine de mort…

H.K : "Bien des personnes, ayant des yeux parfaits, sont aveugles dans leurs perceptions. Bien des personnes, ayant des oreilles parfaites, sont émotionnellement sourdes. Et précisément, ce sont elles qui osent poser des limites à la vision de ceux qui, manquant d’un sens ou deux, ont la volonté, l’âme, la passion, l’imagination. La tolérance est le plus grand don de l'esprit, elle exige le même effort du cerveau qu'il faut pour se tenir en équilibre sur une bicyclette."

Midnight GLOBE will be released on December 4th, 2013

Midnight GLOBE est une histoire mystérieuse sur les jugements hâtifs que l'on porte sur les autres, un hommage poétique à une célébrité oubliée, une incitation au Voyage dans l'esprit de Jules Verne, avec le Globe terrestre comme symbole.

Le film sort en salle le 4 décembre 2013. Suivez les actualités pour ne pas louper les avant-premières. Voici la bande annonce sur Allociné.

Synopsis. Nattie est de retour en France dans un centre spécialisé où l'on enseigne le jeu du Wiphala aux enfants, pour les inciter à s'ouvrir aux autres. Mais, quand le Globe de Nattie tourne, le jeu peut s'avérer dangereux. Un meurtre non élucidé. Un couple mystérieux. Du Wiphala naîtra la vérité !

Wayna Pitch est une société de production et distribution cinéma qui assume son envie d'innovation, en étant notamment à l’initiative du séminaire «informatique et cinéma» et de la charte «cinéma équitable».

Midnight GLOBE and Equitable Cinema

I'm really glad to announce that we have now completed the post-production of Midnight GLOBE, the new french psychological thriller mainly in english, with french and english speaking actors.

Synopsis. In a world where english has long since become the universal language... Nattie is finally old enough to learn how to master the Voyage, a new communication technique used in a popular game of deception known as Wiphala. After beginning her training under the penetrating eye of the mysterious Master Dallé, Nattie soon realises that she is being watched and that a web of lies and deceit surround her. The only way out : jouer au Wiphala!

Founded in 2011, Wayna Pitch brings a different approach to the independent market with a new vision of equitable cinema that aims to give another dimension to our stories. Wayna Pitch wishes to make ambitious feature films, in full transparency and in respecting the viewer by revealing that the films were produced with limited resources. To associate viewers with the equitable cinema position, Wayna Pitch has committed to reimburse 50% of its profits mainly to associations connected with the subject matter of this film, but equally to initiatives that support this position. This agreement is above all ethical, but it supports the simple fact that Wayna Pitch is a company that wants to continue to innovate within the audio-visual field (more details on midnightglobe.com).

Cet accord est avant tout moral mais il tient par le simple fait que Wayna Pitch est une société qui veut innover et perdurer dans le paysage audiovisuel français.

La démarche vise également à promouvoir et récompenser des artistes qui distribuent gratuitement leurs oeuvres sur internet. Wayna Pitch souhaite notamment mettre en lumière le mérite de certains compositeurs qui rendent possible la réutilisation et la diffusion de leurs travaux dans un contexte professionnel, en des termes plus techniques, ceux qui publient leurs oeuvres sous la licence Creative Commons Attribution BY.

Let's end with the trailer...

More information on midnightglobe.com and facebook...

Globe - Behind the scene

Globe's filming ended in May 2012 after the last schedule was shot in Nantes. Globe's post-production is in progress and I think that it's time for me to wake up my lovely blog. I was wondering if I could offer any tips on how to help you to make your first feature film, and I thought that I could simply share the technical stuff we have used to make Globe. Maybe, it could help... I don't know if it's the best way to make your first feature film if you have a limited budget. In fact, I'm sure that it isn't, but I don't care! I also don't know if I want to use the same workflow to make my second one, but, here we go!

Crew : Francis Frenkel, Alain Brasseur, Emmanuel Joseph, Céline Disint, Zed Bruno, Catherine Caldray, Caroline Audrain

Cast : Carole Reppel-Baele, Anthony Bertaud, Bruno Henry, Dominique Prié, Vivienne Vermes, Phillip Schurer, Christophe Jouzel, Nolwenn Le Floch, Sébastien Froger, Antoine Ohron, Adrien Comelli, Daniel Macaud, Samuel Decoux, Gilles Richard...

First things first, the production side... 

Last year, I watched Dov Simens' DVDs again and again. Dov's film school helps to keep the focus on what's really important for independent filmmakers who want to come into this industry. Turning some of the Dov' magnetic power of persuasion inward could recharge your faith and build a deeper confidence in yourself.

In my opinion, the best way to make your first feature as an independent filmmaker is to do your job as best as you can with your budget and skills... Stay on budget! Try to do as many things as you can and try to identify complementary people to make your crew... and don't let people say that you can't do a feature film with only six crew members. It isn't easy but I think they are wrong! I've heard this sentence so many times in the last year...

Hire a great artist to design a beautiful pre-production poster! It changes the way people look at your filmmaking project! Of course, it could help if you plan to launch a crowdfunding campaign like us (Ulule) to get the end of your budget, but also remember that location scouting is a vital process in the pre-production stage of filmmaking, and this poster is really appreciated by the location owners...

Let's go right into the core of the discussion...

Learn from the masters! I have read many books in the last ten years but two of them really helped me in the last six months.

Learn from computers! Digital revolution is in march, DSLRs, NLE, iPad, what an amazing period! Stay connected!

I wrote the first version of the Globe's screenplay with Celtx, an open source software you probably already know. In december 2011, Wayna Pitch hired an english screenwriter Barth Hulley to write the english dialogues of the film and we work together in the Celtx collaborative environment. I have to say that it works fine!

During Globe's pre-production stage, I used my own computing experience to move on. 

In theory, the script breakdown involves taking every scene in the movie and placing it on a production board. I created an Open Office spreadsheet (complex but powerful!). The pre-production schedule was created with the Shot List app on the iPad (amazing in its simplicity!).

GoodReader is The Must-Have document reader for iPad and it is the perfect tool on the set for the director to direct the story and the actors, to keep organized and share the vision, no sheet of paper, everything in the right place : the script, the notes, the homework, the shot list...

I recently read on nofilmschool that Magic Lantern is no longer a Hack... Francis and me agree! We use it during 26 days on two Canon 5D mark II and I assume that we couldn't have done this without it. V2.3 is really a mature release with more professional features than any other cameras (focus, exposure, bitrate...)

Post-production, here's where we are today... Editing in FCPX and DaVinci Resolve 9 for color grading! ProRes 422! Two 3To hard drives! FCPX is for me a great professional NLE. The only thing that really drives me crazy in FCPX 10.0.5 is that I would like to copy, paste and remove individual clip attributes, effects, rather than the shotgun all or nothing way it is done now...

Globe - The Cast & Crew in action

I'm currently working on Globe, my first low budget feature film... We started to shoot on march 27th and we'll finish on april 27th. The film is entirely shot with two Canon 5D Mark II, two Zoom recorders (H4n and H2), two wireless lavaliers, one Rode NTG-2 microphone, and different types of camera supports... You can follow us day by day on Facebook and/or Ulule.

The cast in action...

The crew in action...

Participate in the funding of Globe... Receive exclusive rewards!

Here we go!!! I just launched my first fundraising campaign on Ulule...

Globe is a 2 hours feature film project. It is a mixture of realistic science fiction and psychological thriller, on a background of game and travel. The story takes place mostly at night in Nantes.

I wrote the screenplay and Bart Hulley wrote the english dialogues. Wayna Pitch is the executive production company. The shooting has been scheduled between march 27 and april 28, and most of the cast and crew is ready to go!

What is Ulule? Ulule enables you to discover original projects and products. A new way to help, share or participate in bringing original ideas to life. You can participate in the funding of many types of projects and receive exclusive rewards...

The pre-production poster by the so-talented Krystel.

Pitch

An english girl who can read minds revisits her childhood doctor in Nantes to reclaim something that he took from her. 

Storyline

Faro defeats an old man in a clandestine contest of "Wiphala", a game involving a form of teleportation known simply as "le voyage". He is then challenged by Marius who suspects Faro of cheating. Sometime later Nattie, a girl who can read minds, and her brother visit a special clinic in France to meet her childhood doctor and to reclaim a small globe that he took from her when she was little. Reunited with her globe Nattie rediscovers her ability to "voyage" but, despite help from others at the clinic, her fear of the dark remains; a mysterious couple with a connection to Faro, Marius and an unsolved murder are watching her every move.

If you would like to help us make this movie, follow this link: Jonathan’s Crowdfunding Ulule Campaign.

Demo Reel 2011 - One year of blogging

I'm really glad to celebrate my first year of blogging about filmmaking… Well, one year of happiness!

My schedule is really heavy in the beginning of this year, because of the pre-production of my first feature film, but I took the time to make a demo reel.

What has this year of blogging given to me? Why did I need it? Apart from the obvious - an unexpected number of visitors, more than a ten thousand different eyes - the answer is quite simple… It has allowed me to grow, given me valuable knowledge of the filmmaking industry. I tried to share what I've learned, most of the time on Twitter, and sometimes on this blog when I had enough time to do something interesting.

Blogger, Facebook, Twitter, Google+, Vimeo, Tumblr, LinkedIn have allowed me to meet many filmmakers from all over the world and see their work and talk to them about it, often virtually, sometimes physically, within Nantes (FR) and abroad… As another example, Jamendo is a nice network for filmmakers because it helps us to make contacts with great music authors.

         

I could take many examples to show how social networks are important in the new independent filmmaking world, not only one network, but all of them... I met several of the actors of my new feature film on Facebook. I met many other french filmmakers on Vimeo and Twitter. On Google+, I met the screenwriter who actually helps me on the screenplay of my new feature film. Finally, most of the producer I know have a LinkedIn page. I keep in touch with my computing network on Viadeo, and I created an IMDb page when we submitted the short film Russian Sandglass to the Stepping Stone Film Festival, but this page exists just for fun ;-) I don't really like social networks, but our world is changing and, therefore, we have to evolve with it...